Beltane Nights (one shot)
by popsie
Summary: "Do you remember Thomas? The soldier who brought us back to the Isle?" Evie said to Mal whose eyebrows quirked in response. "Long way from home aren't you?" Instantaneously, Mal has switched from her happy, slightly drunk self to the cunning manipulative leader of the gang. "I'm looking for three runaways: Jane, Lonnie and Doug." 3 missing Auradon kids & 3 new crew recruits. ExD


Despite the sun having not set yet, the inn was heaving with the sound of a lively band and the drunk patrons dancing merrily to the sound of a fiddle and the accompanying instruments. Through the open windows, the sound of a flute carried on the early summer breeze and couples spilt out onto the cobbled street in front of the pub, twirling around in each other's arms without a care.

Somewhere near the back of the inn, underneath a dripping candelabra in one of the wooden booths, a girl with blue hair was sat with a small frown on her face. Her unusual hair was artfully woven around the crown of her head into a headband and yet still the braid trailed down over her shoulder and hung near her hips.

 _The third class_ was the most frequented inn this side of the Isle and it's seemed as though half of the islands' inhabitants had turned up to begin their early celebrations of Beltane with a glass of mead in mind. Evie didn't mind the noise, she quite enjoyed being apart of the energy but it was the fact that her friends had left her alone.

Evie hated working from second-hand intelligence.

Mail was at the bar, trailing a painted nail across the bicep of an unknown sailor, scamming him into buying her another round of the overpriced drinks. At the opposite end of the pub, Carlos was clapping and dancing along with a local maiden, showing off his musicality as they danced along to the beat to the joy of the crowd. Evie had lost sight of Jay as soon as she had sat down as someone had called over to him, roping the young man into an arm wrestling tournament promising a hefty reward that he was bound to win.

A round of raucous applause jolted her and she clapped along half-heartedly as the band took a short break, swigging their honey wine until they were once again playing a well-known drinking song.

A little lock of hair had escaped her braid and was in her eye but before Evie could push it behind her ear, a tankard of mead was pushed in front of her.

She looked into the tankard and the followed the pale fingers wrapped around the handle, up the arm and across a shoulder, right into the smiling face.

A sharp intake of breath and then a slow smile, one that Jay would known to be wary of but the soldier in front of her didn't know that yet.

"We meet once more," the soldier said and Evie nodded to the chair opposite from her. He sunk down and brushed his hair back, grinning as Evie took the tankard and replaced it for her empty one. "Nicer circumstances this time round however."

The soldier was barely older than Evie but he had been enrolled in the mainland's army since he had been barely a boy. He was handsome, undoubtedly, but Evie had already given her heart to someone. This was purely a distraction and a good opportunity to find some important information out.

"How is the King?" she asked politely but her tone was dripping venom. "I hear he recently got engaged."

The soldier nodded and took a hesitant sip of his wine. It was common knowledge that the four friends had been invited to Auradon and then dropped back behind the barrier once the positive publicity had run it course. Barely seven months in a higher education before the King's advisors had deemed the project successful and that the villainous children were no longer needed. To say it was a prickly subject was understating it.

"I... uh, yeah, the planning is already well underway. Do you remember my name?" the Swift change in conversation didn't go amiss by Evie who allowed the soldier a few moments restbite.

The soldier was the one Royal guard who had accompanied the four back to the Isle of the Lost and made sure they exited the car before the barrier and were left trapped behind it.

"Thomas," she whispered around her tankard and the soldier, Thomas, seemed to deflated and relax further just by hearing his name come from her lips. "But you must remember who I am."

"Of course I remember you!" he said almost defensively. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen Evie."

Doug would never have complimented her beauty first but she had to accept that not all men were like her man.

A repressed sigh followed by a faked grin. "So, how are Lonnie and Jane?" Evie probed and Thomas frowned.

"That's actually why I am here. They have been missing since the day you returned to the Isle. Some guy also but I forget his name." Thomas rooted around in his pocket and pulled out three small scrolls. One for each of the runaways.

Evie couldn't decided whether to act shocked at the news or not but she was saved by Mal throwing herself into the booth next to Evie.

"God, they're easy!" she grinned, her hands ladened with tankards, almost a dozen, all held precariously by their handles, the liquid almost spilling. "See you've caught a pigeon," Mal commented, replacing the mead the soldier had brought Evie with some stronger liquor.

"Pigeon?" Thomas said as Evie shushed her best friend.

The term was used by the crew to talk about targets and it usually went unsaid or at least whispered.

"Do you remember Thomas? The soldier who brought us back to the Isle?" Evie said to Mal whose eyebrows raised in response.

"Long way from home aren't you?" Instantaneously, Mal has switched from her happy, slightly drunk self to the cunning manipulative leader of the gang.

"I'm looking for three runaways," Thomas gulped and shifted under Mal's attention but he handed over three scrolls regardless. "Have you seen any of these people?"

The first scroll Mal unfurled was plastered with a picture of Lonnie and her basic details. She mentally noted that her height was wrong, noted as a few inches shorter than she actually was but it was perfectly fine otherwise. A small but adequate reward was offered for either information or the girl herself.

The next was Doug's and whilst his picture did look kind of like him, it had left out his glasses and seemed to have been referenced from a very old photo. The man in the picture looked to be barely a teenager, not the eighteen year old Doug was now. The reward was the same price as Lonnie's and his details were vague.

Jane's scroll was mainly taken up by the large sum that was offered if she was found. Her picture was pretty and her details were correct and it didn't take a genius to work out that Godmother's need to control her daughter meant that she was desperate and the reward showed it, it was double Doug and Lonnie's combined.

"That's a lot of money," Evie said, pushing a glass of wine towards the soldier as Mal subtly pocketed the scrolls. "What makes the crown think that they're on the Isle?"

"I dunno," the soldier said through a hiccough.

Thomas's cheeks were significantly pinker than they had been when he had first sat down as the two girls had piled him with drink after drink. The alcohol on the Isle was purer than Auradon's as it was watered down and the effects seemed to be overwhelming the young soldier. His eyes were glassy and he had a large, goofy smile on his face.

"Merile!" Evie called over to a local maiden she knew. "This is Thomas and he needs a bed for the night," she gestured to the soldier who turned to look at the girl and was practically drooling at the sight.

Merile smiled and sat down on Thomas' lap with a smirk. "I'll see what I can do," she hummed as she ran a finger of Thomas' lips.

The two girls knew that the soldier wouldn't bother them or anyone else about the runaways again as they left the now kissing couple to it in search of their other two crew mates, satisfied with the small mission they had finally finished.

Jay was on top of a table, arms ladened with notes and gold coins as he laughed at those who had better against him foolishly. Carlos on the other hand was deep within the dancing couples, spinning the butcher's son around almost violently as they sang and danced along.

The two girls split up, one taking one of the boys and then meeting up outside in the darkened, lamp-lit street.

"Did'ya get him?" Jay asked, handing the money to Evie who put it into her skirt pockets to keep safe.

"Yeah, and he probably won't be going back to the mainland anytime soon," Mal joked. Merile had a way with men that meant they often hung around and dropped their lives to stay in hers.

The four friends had been frequenting the same small inn for the past week in hopes that the soldier would ask around for Evie before searching for the runaways. Despite the three Auradon kids becoming fully integrated into the crew that no one messed with them anymore, Godmother was offering so much money for Jane's return that they thought it would be better to eliminate the threat before it even had chance to manifest.

They walked arm in arm through the busy streets, wishing those in their favour a happy Beltane as other scattered from their path. After a few minutes walking, they split up and went in different ways, making sure they weren't being followed before heading to their warehouse.

The climb up the stairs was a good moment for Evie to clear her head. She stopped on the small walkway, looking out over the Isle from the railing. She had been worrying about the news that a Auradon guard was on the Isle looking for information about the three Auradon kids who had disappeared around the time of the villainous kids' return. It had always been handy to have a large network and as soon as Evie had caught wind of it, she had decided to put her plan into action.

"Successful night?" finally the voice she had been dying to hear all night was there, whispering into the shell of her ear and she could relax. Doug's arms ensnared her waist and she leaned back into his chest.

"Yes, you're worth quite a bit you know," she teased as he pressed a kiss to her hairline.

"Not as much as Jane I'm sure," he replied. "Even I know I'm not as much as her."

"You're worth double to me," was the last thing Evie said before she turned around in his arms and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Even if you can't do magic and are amazing as organising the crew."

* * *

 _Tiny oneshot (possibly will expand maybe not) of Doug x Evie_

 _Hope you enjoy and I will be updating other fics in the near future but this is being but on the back burner in favour of uni work for the next few months. I will still be writing and tweaking all the half finished things I've got to publish._

 _BUT until next time, review, favourite and enjoy XO P_


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